5 Sales Pitch Tricks Research Shows Your Presentation Is Missing

Giving a sales pitch is what we call an art and a science. Although your salacious prose might woo a customer or two, psychology and research dictate the true tricks of the trade. Yes, it’s not as sexy as prancing around prospects’ emotions, but these science-tested sales pitch tricks are sure to get the job done.

So, go on. Be a nerd and learn how these tactics can help you close the deal.

Sales pitch trick #1: Offer fewer choices

Increase the number of products in your offer and sales will go up. Get different software packages and you will be able to sell more.

That sounds logical, doesn’t it? But in actuality, you may be doing yourself a disservice.

Introduce a product that makes your standard model look like a better deal. Consider a product at a similar price but with fewer features or lower specifications.

Alternatively, introduce a hero product at a much higher price, so your standard product looks more reasonably priced.

Sales pitch trick #3: Appeal to emotions

Are your prospects rational buyers?

If you ask them why they’ve selected a product, they will most likely justify their purchase with facts pointing out the differences in specifications or features.

But it’s quite likely that they made their decision subconsciously before they became aware of it. Roger Dooley suggests that 95% of brain activity is subconscious. So you should always be suspicious when someone tries to explain his or her purchasing decision.

How important is emotion in buying decisions? It’s difficult to say. But what is clear, is that persuasion by telling stories works. Stories carry us away making us less aware of attempts to persuade us.

Sales pitch trick #4: Talk about NOT buying

In the first experiment people were given $50 and then given this choice:

(A) Keep $30
(B) Take a gamble with a 50/50 chance of keeping or losing the full $50.

In the above test 43% of people chose to gamble their money.

A second experiment was conducted. The only difference was that option A was re-phrased as:

(A) Lose $20

There’s absolutely no difference between keeping $30 or losing $20, because the experiment started off with receiving $50. Keeping $30 means you’re losing $20, doesn’t it?

Still the number of people choosing to gamble went up from 43% in the first experiment to 62% in the second.

That’s not rational, is it?

As Buonomano explains, the way something is described has an impact on the decisions we take. Psychologists call this framing. But something else is at play here: loss aversion. When option A was described as a loss, people chose to try and limit that loss by gambling more often.

How to use this sales trick to sell more:

Point out to your prospects what they’ll lose out on if they don’t buy your product.

Sales pitch trick #5: Gain agreement on something small

Imagine you’re selling cookies for a charity. Rather than calling on people’s homes straightaway, you phone them first to ask whether you can send a volunteer to their house to sell some cookies. When this was done is a scientific study, 18% agreed.

Now, imagine trying a different approach. You phone people, and ask them how they’re feeling this evening. You wait for their reply, and then ask whether you can send a volunteer to sell some cookies for charity.

In the second scenario the percentage of people agreeing increased to 32%. That’s a massive increase. What’s going on?

In his book Influence, Robert Cialdini describes this experiment and several others to explain the consistency principle. Simply said, this means that once people have agreed with something (it’s a pleasant evening), they’re more likely to agree something else (yes, you can send someone to sell us some cookies).

How to use this sales trick to sell more:

Don’t immediately aim for a sale during your pitch. Try to get your prospect to agree on the challenges he faces at his organization or the difficulties his solution presents. Start small before aiming big.

The Truth About Decision Making

Research has discovered a lot about human psychology and decision making. The truth is, human nature will often trump the facts, no matter how great your product or service may be. The best way to win at selling is to use the information out there about human behavior and decision making to your advantage.

These sales pitch tricks are just a few cunning ways to reel in sales. Check out these other articles about sales pitching to learn more tried and true tips on giving an effect sales pitch.